Towards an Integrated Approach to Climate Change Education in Tanzania: The Role of Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Abstract

There have been many efforts globally toward fighting climate change; including international agreements, conferences, research, policies, forums, etc. In addition to these efforts, climate change education has recently emerged as an essential capacity-building tool to curb the climate crisis. However, development practitioners from the Global South have cited limitations with climate change education due to the dominance of Eurocentric epistemologies over indigenous knowledge (IK) approaches. This study therefore advocates for the integration of indigenous knowledge into climate change education in Tanzania for achieving a sustainable environment. Seventy documents, including peer-reviewed papers, reports from corporate institutions, policy briefs, proceedings and other grey literature were reviewed. We establish that IK systems are not integrated into CCE in Tanzania. However, we find opportunities for integration due to the evidence of the existing CCE efforts and potential complementary indigenous practices. By identifying, documenting, and validating indigenous knowledge and merging this knowledge with scientific insights, the fostering of an integrated approach to combat the enduring effects of climate change can be evidenced.